ZAGREB, November 29, 2020 - The head of the prime minister's office, Zvonimir Frka-Petesic, said on Sunday PM Andrej Plenkovic was self-isolating from his wife, who has coronavirus, and their children, adding that he had no symptoms, was continuing to do his job and that the government was working normally.

Plenkovic has been self-isolating since Saturday, when his wife tested positive. His test came back negative.

"The government is working normally. This morning we had two meetings via video link," Frka-Petesic told the press.

He said the prime minister would participate in Monday's cabinet meeting via video link and that as far as he knew, nothing would be cancelled and that all meetings would be virtual.

Asked if the prime minister would get tested again, he said he would when epidemiologists decided that it was necessary.

Vukovar incident condemned

Frka-Petesic also commented on an incident which occurred in a Vukovar bar in the early hours of Saturday, involving the state secretary at the Veterans Ministry, Stjepan Sucic, who violated anti-COVID measures.

"Of course we condemn such an unfortunate event. We regret that something like that happened at a time when epidemiological measures have been prescribed for all of us. There can be no excuse for violating them, notably by government officials who must lead by example," he said, adding that the cabinet would discuss the matter on Monday and "adopt the appropriate decisions."

Asked if Sucic would be sacked, Frka-Petesic it would be considered tomorrow.

He denied that the government had intervened with the Vukovar police station last night. "I know nothing about that. This is a very suggestive question. I don't believe something like that is possible."

Police found Sucic and several other persons in a Vukovar bar in the early hours of Saturday, just after a ban on the work of hospitality establishments went into force. County police said yesterday that two men were arrested for disorderly conduct. Media reported that one of them was Sucic and the other the director of the Homeland War Memorial Centre in Vukovar, Krunoslav Seremet.

ZAGREB, Sept 11, 2020  - In the last 24 hours, 5,549 tests have been conducted for coronavirus in Croatia and the national COVID-19 crisis management team reports 190 new COVID cases.

There are now 2,430 active cases, including 327 patients who are being treated in hospitals, and 26 of them are placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, three COVID positive persons have died, bringing the country's death toll to 211.

Since 25 February when Croatia reported its first case of the coronavirus infection, 13,107 people have tested positive. Of them, 10,466 have recovered to date.

 A total of 210,805 tests have been performed to date.

 Currently, 8,720 people are self-isolating.

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ZAGREB, July 28, 2020 - The ombudsman for persons with disabilities said on Tuesday that in the "new normal" care home resents should be allowed freedom of movement and that it was inhumane to expect them to live in self-isolation until further notice.

Under Croatian Institute of Public Health directions in force since mid-March, all residents are banned from leaving care home premises, Anka Slonjsak said in a press release.

Under the directions, the entire burden of preventing the spread of coronavirus has been imposed solely on care home residents, she added.

Slonjsak said she had been warning the authorities since May about multiple violations of care home residents' human rights. She said they were complaining in public that the restriction of free movement over the past four months deprived them of a fundamental human right, affecting their mental and physical well-being.

Slonjsak said care home staff, when they were not at work, went to potentially risky places without restriction or control.

She asked why the measures being applied to staff, such as measuring their temperature when they came to work, periodic testing, physical distancing and protective gear, could not be applied to residents who requested it.

Slonjsak said epidemiologists must find solutions to allow residents freedom of movement outside the home.

Although the epidemiological situation is a big challenge and responsibility for the authorities, the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms must not be ruled out without considering less aggravating possibilities for achieving the same goal, she said.

ZAGREB, July 14, 2020 - All the officials at the Ministry of Science and Education including Minister Blazenka Divjak were informed by epidemiologists on Tuesday that they had to self-isolate and take COVID tests after a ministry state-secretary had tested positive.

The ministry said in a press release that Minister Divjak had consulted epidemiologists and was instructed to go into self-isolation and to be urgently tested for the virus.

All of the ministry's officials were informed that they should self-isolate after the ministry's state-secretary proved positive, the press release said.

Unofficial sources have said that the state-secretary had attended a wedding party in Zadar, where some people have been identified to have caught the coronavirus. After returning to Zagreb she did not undergo a test or go into self-isolation and in the meantime attended a staff meeting of the ministry's officials and other meetings.

ZAGREB, June 27, 2020 - Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) head Krunoslav Capak has said that people infected with coronavirus are now observed to have milder symptoms, which is still not proof that the virus has grown weaker, and that by self-isolating SDP official Rajko Ostojic has shown disrespect for epidemiologists.

"We have been observing somewhat milder clinical presentations," Capak told the N1 broadcaster on Saturday, adding that he had heard from epidemiologists in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia that people infected with the virus in those countries now had mild symptoms and that many did not have any.

He noted, however, that it was still too early to say that the virus had grown weaker before the research was done on a larger number of people.

The average patient now is on average 20 years younger than the average patient in March, which is mostly due to the fact that younger people have travelled to neighbouring countries and a large number of infections have been contracted in night clubs, he said.

Epidemiologists should decide if someone is at risk of catching the disease

Commenting on Social Democratic Party (SDP) vice-president Rajko Ostojic going into self-isolation on his own following contact with a party colleague who has tested positive for COVID-19, Capak said that with his actions and statements for the media Ostojic was humiliating epidemiologists.

"Ostojic is a gastroenterologist, we do not interfere in his diagnostics and treatment options, so he, too, should stay out of epidemiologists' work," he said.

Capak recalled that epidemiologists had assessed that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic did not have to self-isolate after a brief encounter of fewer than three minutes and without close contact with Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, at a tournament in Zadar last weekend.

Capak also said that there was no need for Plenkovic to get tested again as he had not been in close contact with Djokovic.